STUDENTS APPEAL PUNISHMENT IN ‘TWERKING’ CASE

SCRIPPS RANCH 
Some of the 31 students suspended for their role in the now-infamous “twerking” video are challenging their punishment before administrators at Scripps Ranch High School this week.

The appeals come after Superintendent Bill Kowba told San Diego school board members in a memo that he personally considers the video “a deeply offensive production with implications for lewd conduct, sexual harassment and gender victimization.”

The students were suspended last Tuesday, just days after the video of them twerking was posted on YouTube. Shot on campus by a student using district equipment, the footage is set to music with what officials say are offensive lyrics and shows the girls from behind demonstrating the dance move — rapidly shaking their hips and butts while doing a handstand or crouching.

The superintendent called the incident “sensational and scandalous” and pointed out in the first sentence of the memo that of those suspended, “28 were white girls and three were boys of color.”

Kowba urged trustees and other officials with the San Diego Unified School District to limit comments about the incident, citing federal privacy laws. His memo was not intended for public distribution.

Six of the students are seniors and could be denied participation in prom, graduate night, commencement ceremony and other milestone events tied to the final weeks of high school.

The San Diego school board is expected to discuss the matter behind closed doors next Tuesday. Meanwhile, some of the students and their parents are attending discipline hearings at the suburban high school, an academic powerhouse that usually makes news for its stellar test scores.

“The appeals process is taking place at the high school this week,” said Linda Zintz, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Unified School District. “That is standard procedure. Parents can then appeal to the school board if they are unsatisfied.”

Both the video and the severity of punishment handed down to the students have stirred controversy locally and nationwide.

The video and news reports of the suspensions had gone viral last week. U-T San Diego’s first article posted online about the incident on Wednesday garnered at least 260,000 views on the newspaper website, making it the most popular story of the year.

Students used school equipment to make the video on the high school campus.

“It is especially insulting to SRHS, having been filmed on district property without district/school authorization and involves the naming of the school and young women wearing SRHS apparel,” Kowba wrote in the memo issued last week.

He mentions “salacious background music that accompanies the video,” a reference to rap musician YG’s “You Broke,” a song that is laced with sexually explicit lyrics.

He added that “a young male is in the video in a sexually suggestive role.”

Scripps High Principal Anne Menna investigated the incident as soon as it was reported to her, Kowba said. He pointed out that all the students were “properly interviewed” and that all the parents were contacted.

“I asked Anne about the parental reaction,” he wrote. “In all but a couple of instances, the parents were disappointed and embarrassed.”